Another quiet season in Sweden – no scandals, no big news. Yet, there were changes – some long-lasting. Sweden was going towards full professionalism without fuss. Some big names already were lured back. Foreign players were arriving – still in tiny numbers, but coming. A realistic approach – Sweden was in a position to develop really big clubs and keep her best players in the domestic league. So, the development was to be modest, emphasizing on home grown talent. The second division was relatively weaker, so the winners there were not expected to shake up the upper league.
IS Halmia won the Southern Second Division. An old club, as Swedish clubs usually are, founded in 1907, but hardly known. Their best years were in deep past – between 1944 and 1950. ‘Success’ really meant steady playing in first division… after 1950 the club was mostly playing second division football. The second and smaller club in their home town, Halmstad. Halmstads BK were bigger and more successful, but the local derby was mostly called that in jest: Halmstads BK and IS Halmia were seldom in the same division. They were to be in 1979, after IS Halmia won promotion.
The winner of the Northern Second Division was another small club:
IFK Sundsvall. If there was a club from this city playing top league football, it was usually GIF Sundsvall. Now they were also in second division and finished 6th, 10 points behind their city rivals. Unlike the Southern group, which was either more competitive or just the clubs were of relatively same strength, only 2 clubs competed in the North – IFK and IK Brage. Brage lost by a point.
Good for IFK Sundsvall and perhaps a rare moment of finishing much better than the city rivals, but a typical second-tier team. They were to face the test of their survival skills the next year. It was clear that cities like Sundsvall and many others were not able to build strong and successful teams – two or more clubs were just too many for the limited local resources, but like Poland, Sweden did not fancy amalgamations. The Swedes obviously preferred tradition – better two small clubs than one perhaps better off, but lacking identity.